ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper on President Obama’s second term, the Petraeus shocker and getting out of Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama leaves the podium after making a statement to reporters about the suspicious packages found on U.S. bound planes in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. Pictured in front row, from left to right: Matt Spetalnick of Reuters, Jake Tapper of ABC News, Darlene Superville of the Associated Press, Chip Reid of CBS News, Wendell Goler of Fox News, and Chuck Todd of NBC News. (AP)

Uproar in Washington. Over David Petraeus and his extramarital affair. Over General John Allen, top US commander in Afghanistan, and his pile of “inappropriate” e-mails with Jill Kelley. Over Benghazi. Over the fiscal cliff. Meanwhile, on the ground in Afghanistan, U.S. troops continue the longest war in American history.

ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper covers it all. In a new book he looks at the stunning price paid by volunteer soldiers in Afghanistan’s mountains as the nation rolls on.

This hour, On Point: Jake Tapper on the nation and its outpost in Afghanistan.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest

From Tom’s Reading List

The Wall Street Journal “The protagonist of “The Outpost” is a place: Combat Outpost Keating, named for a U.S. officer killed there. Mr. Tapper follows the fortunes of the base, its defenders and their families from its conception in the summer of 2006 until Oct. 6, 2009, when B-1 bombers dropped multiple tons of ordnance to obliterate it. Like the troops it describes, the book toggles wrenchingly back and forth between the crags of Afghanistan and the home front, where wives, parents, and children are depicted awaiting, and dealing with, terrible news. Photographs and emails they and surviving troops shared with Mr. Tapper are scattered through the book, adding to its intimacy.”

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune “As in several other recent books — for example, last year’s “Lions of Kandahar” — “The Outpost” is filled with stories of brave, dedicated, intelligent young Americans put in untenable positions by leaders who at best seem stupid and at worst uncaring.”

Excerpt

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